


Team molds together

by FawnoftheWoods



Series: Not Alone Anymore [11]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Avengers, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-02-08 22:49:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12874716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FawnoftheWoods/pseuds/FawnoftheWoods
Summary: These are one shots, snippets of life with the Avengers AFTER "Back to action".  Here the team is just growing more used to each other and enjoying each other's company and quirks





	1. Everybody Likes Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finds out how Tony and Natasha react to kids. More trust all around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being a lot longer than I expected

Steve frowned as Clint took the last of the cookies.  Again.  He sighed.  “Really?  I thought we were saving one for Tony so he could at least try them.”  Clint had the grace to look slightly guilty.

“Its been there for over 24 hours!  They’ll make more.”  Natasha and Bruce had been on a baking spree recently.  Although  Bruce was better at cooking, Tony had asked for muffins, in his round-about way and so Bruce had dutifully looked them up and he and Natasha had been baking ever since.

“Clint you know Bruce likes Tony to-“  Steve cut himself off as the two science bros walked into the room with their head together talking about something.  Since Natasha was following them, Steve wondered if they were finally working on her upgrades.

Tony had been slowly giving them all upgrades as they worked together.  Steve’s gloves being the second, the vibranium, Bruce discovered, translated just enough vibrations to his hand that it could damage his tendons.  Thor’s belt knife had been next.  Clint had also gotten some gloves and later some more impact resistant clothes which Natasha had gotten.  Tony hadn’t started working on weapons until more recently, first with Steve and Clint.  

He had done the very first things for Bruce.  The expandable pants with homing device and some minor weapons had been a very quick addition and Steve had yet to see Bruce not touch them after a transformation and smile.

Still Tony had given Natasha her space since moving in.  She mentioned dosing him once and thought Tony just needed time to see she wasn’t under Fury pipe anymore.  It was encouraging if he was designing thing for her.

Steve glared at Clint once more for good measure before taking Tasha aside to ask for more cookies in the near future because a bird brain had eaten them all.

“Sir, probability of CCC alarm above 75%.”  They all, minus Tony, looked at the ceiling automatically as JARVIS spoke.  “Also, the grocery delivery will include what is needed for the cookies, but its ETA is not for 2 hours.”  Natasha nodded as Bruce looked at her curiously.  Tony had immediately cut his conversation to journey to the table and open a holo screen.  JARVIS had immediately started displaying information across it in the language Tony read fastest, his programming one.  

“Bruce?”  Bruce glanced at Steve a moment before shrugging.  “I can’t read it when its moving this much.  I barely know the basics.”  Steve frowned as Tony frowned at the data he was moving around.

“J, alert security now.”  

“Yes sir.  Probability now 83%”  Tony was flicking images around, making everyone else a touch dizzy.  Then he abruptly paled.

“Clint, how fast can you get to the 41 st floor?”  

Clint blinked at him.  “5 seconds.”  It was testament to how much the archer trusted Tony that he was already heading for the nearest access.

“Tony, what’s up?”  Steve stood as Tony glanced at the data again.

“Sir, Probability at 90% and 7 seconds out.”  Tony nodded at Clint, throwing him a comm on his way past.

“Go!”  

Natasha turned and opened a hidden panel Steve wasn’t aware was there.  “Where?”  

Tony was still looking at his diagram.

“41 st Floor, Section J-9.  JARVIS has cleared elevator shaft 3.”  

Tasha was gone then as Bruce and Steve watched uselessly.  

000

Tasha heard Tony’s voice to Clint crackle over her comm as he guided the vent inhabitor closer to their target.

“You’re on protection detail. Three hostile adults males.  Protecting 56 targets, 26 male, 30 female.  Please remain non-fatal.  Hostiles not initially deadly.  Weapons include small firearms and a fucking sharp tongue.”

Tasha heard Clint snort at that as he hit the correct floor.  She was only 3 seconds behind him.

“Sir, Alarm has been tripped by main supervisor.  Security is delayed.”

“We need to review this later J.”  

Tasha let their discussion fall back as she acknowledged Steve’s remark that Bruce and Tony were with him in the elevator and coming down.

“Oh fuuuurick!”  Natasha blinked, having never heard Clint sensor himself quite like that.

“Hawk?”  Her soft question wasn’t answered right away as she approached more slowly.  

“Put the kid down now!”  Clint’s cold voice came across the comm and Natasha heard Bruce swear softly as she put eyes on the room.

It was the Child Care Center for the building’s employees.  She saw 40-odd kids with another half dozen adults off to one corner.  Three men with masks and guns had a child each and two more were behind them in a corner crying and holding each other.  They were the actual kidnapping targets.  She noted the positions of everyone, sidelining the question for Tony of what the kids were doing here.

She slowly backed away and circled to the vent behind and above them.  Then she waited.  “Say when, I got the middle and left gun.”

Clint seemed to be holding his temper.  “Lisa?”  One of the women behind him answered.  “I need you to take the rest of the children out of here.  Head to the elevators.  Three men will meet you there.”  Lisa nodded and Natasha was impressed to see her pull herself together long enough to start to herd the children out of the room.

000

Clint swore under his breath as he entered the room.  He was barely 1 second behind the hostiles.  Then he saw the targets and had to work hard on his swearing.  Tony hadn’t said anything about kids!  He felt his blood boil and forced himself to settle.  Natasha was going to be here soon and she needed his head.

Nat would need him after this too.  She never reacted well to kids being involved in this.

Things had gone downhill quickly as the 3 kidnappers had grabbed 3 kids they didn’t need and placed guns to their heads.  His bow was already out.  He heard the kids to his left whimper at “Miss Lisa”  He heard Natasha’s report and Steve’s ETA.

“Put the kid down now!”  He watched as the kids started crying and the two in the back were whimpering.  They obviously knew what was going on.

Quietly he told ‘Lisa’ to start the kids moving, get them out of here.  For a moment the women looked at him wide-eyed and he thought she would crumble, but she glanced down at her charges and started to quietly herd them out the door with the other adults, prodding them when they froze.  He was glad she pulled herself together.  He hadn’t liked his odds in a room with 40-odd children to protect.  Five kids was much more reasonable.

“I’m not leaving here without them.  They are mine!”  Clint heard only menace in that voice and the siblings behind cowered in fear.

One of the men looked at him.  “You let us out of here with them and you get these three, undamaged!”  Clint gritted his teeth at that.

“Nothing doing.”  The man grinned.  “Then you get none of them.”  He pushed a button on his phone on his hip and Clint felt the explosion behind him in the hallway and the kids screaming.  He felt his blood run cold as Steve and Hulk  scrambled to help.  He phased their comments out to focus on this.

“I have a few more bombs, if you would like to lose more of them.”   Clint glared at him as he considered his options.  Natasha took out 2 and he one, but that didn’t allow for what the two kids behind them would do.  That only protected the ones currently in their arms.

“Jessie, Alex can you guys stay calm for me?”  Clint saw Tony come in the room out of the corner of his eye.  He saw them look up at Tony and the older one nodded, gripping her younger brother tightly.

The man on the left snarled at Tony.  “Shut up!  They are mine!”  He whipped around and struck the girl, who had noticed and automatically covered her brother with her body.  The kids couldn’t have been more than 6 and 4 years old.  Clint pegged him as the kids’ bastard father.

“The courts disagree with you Mr Follers.”  Tony’s even voice indicated he was on the verge of losing his temper.  The man snarled again and Clint heard Natasha growl quietly.

“I don’t care what the whore says, them’s my kids now and the little shits will be raised by my family!”  Clint saw Tony bristle, but he stayed low and non-threatening.  He focused on the kids.  Clint hadn’t known the billionaire could be so good with kids.  Then again he was good with Hulk, so it might make sense after all.

“Jessie, do you remember what your Mommy said when we met?”  The girl met his eyes and swallowed before nodding.  Clint saw her cower lower, but in reality she was picking up her brother.  She was going to make a break for it.  He set himself to move forward.  He heard Nat give the go ahead and waited.

“Jessie, GO!”  Tony darted forward with Clint, but while Clint grabbed the man and used his body to shield his teammate and the kids, Tony grabbed the kids, shoving them towards the door to turn to grab two of the kids that the men had just dropped as both Clint and Natasha grabbed their weapons.  With the kids out of the way, the fight became rather one sided as the two assassins dealt with the kidnappers.

000

Bruce, Steve and Tony exited the elevator just as Lisa and the kids started leaving the room.  They could see them down the hallway.  When the kids saw Captain America they started rushing to him.  The three Avengers heard the conversation with Clint over their comms.  When Bruce heard ‘nothing doing’ he hurried forward and saw the bomb a moment before it exploded.  Hulk growled as he covered the kids from the rubble, his broad back literally supporting a wall.

“Kids keep moving.  Into the elevators!”  A girl stopped next to Steve as he directed them.  “But we aren’t supposed to be in there without an adult!”  One of the caretakers caught up with them.

“I got this.  We’re evacuating to the 43 rd floor.”  Steve nodded.  He heard JARVIS confirm that he would help them get there and all elevators had been rerouted for this.  Steve nodded to Tony who then hurried on to Clint as those negotiations turned down hill.

“Hulk can you keep that wall up?”  Hulk grunted at him while he carefully lifted kids to their feet on onto flat floor.  Steve hopped past him to hear several cries.  Lifting a beam, he found several kids crowded around a woman.  One of the oldest looked at him.  “Miss Lisa pushed us down.  But now she’s hurt!”  He knelt and felt her pulse.  It was fast, but strong as she groaned.  The kids all yelled her name, which probably didn’t help her headache.

“Ma’am can you stand?”  She huffed and pushed herself up, trying to comfort the kids while she did this.  She looked up to him and he saw her eyes were wide and she was swaying.  “Ma’am?”  She blinked at him before bracing herself and stood.

“Come on kids, we need to go.”  Steve helped her to navigate the rubble as she encouraged the kids along.  He admired her dedication when even the kids could see her swaying.  She probably had a concussion from protecting the kids.  Before she followed the kids to the elevator she turned and gripped his shirt.  He instantly steadied her as she looked at him frantically.

“There are 2 kids at the doorway still.”  He looked at her as the other kids made it past Hulk.  She was wavering alarmingly.  “They wouldn’t leave their siblings.”  Steve nodded.

“I’ll get them.”  She nodded and continued to help her brood.  He nodded at Hulk who was helping a very young girl to hop up the rubble.

“Hulk, when they are all out of here, we will need Banner to heal them.”  Hulk grunted, Steve optimistically took that as positive.

He hurried to the door as he heard Tony and Clint move to take out the kidnappers.  He made sure the two kids waiting outside were staying out of the way before stepping in and scooping both kids Tony shoved his way and backing them out of the room.  

He set them down and immediately the two who were waiting grabbed them and pulled them out of the way and he spun back to the room.  Tony had two more kids and one was still next to Natasha.  Seeing that she was closer to the kid, he grabbed the fist aimed for her head and took over the fight.

Natasha huffed a moment before it registered why Steve was interrupting her fight.  There was a child behind her.  She turned and crouched in front of the girl.

“Hey,  we gotta go, can you help me?”  The girl seemed almost as scared of her as she was of the kidnappers but she hesitantly reached out for Natasha to pick her up.  That hadn’t been what Natasha had meant.  Holding a child, an innocence she had had stripped from her, was something she hadn’t thought herself worthy of doing.  She heard Steve grunt behind her as he tried to take down the kidnapper without killing him.  Letting her reservations go, she quickly lifted the child into her arms and darted out of the room after Tony who had 2 in his arms.

000

The rest of the fight was quick.  Without the children as a distraction Clint and Steve had no issue subduing the men.  Natasha followed Tony with the kids and they met Bruce on the 43 rd floor.  He was wearing his lab coat with no shirt and working his way through the kids, inspecting for injuries.  Natasha watched in amazement as Tony set the children he was carrying down gently, and placed a hand on Bruce in question.  Upon receiving a nod, he squeezed the shoulder and turned to where Lisa was sitting on a table with an ice bag on her head and talking with Pepper.

Natasha guided her children over to Bruce as well.  He smiled first at her in relief and then at the kids in greeting.  She tried to back away but Bruce glanced at her and nodded in the direction of a child who clearly needed his scrapes cleaned.  She blanched, but steadied herself and started to clean them.  Even expecting the child to react to the sting of the iodine, she still winced as he cried out.  

At once a hundred other child screams  echoed in her ears.  She saw her classmates fall to her knives as they all struggled to survive the training and then exams.  

A steady arm touched her shoulder and she instinctively reacted, spinning the attacker in front of her and to the ground, placing a knife to his throat.  Soft hands gripped her wrist and shoulder as she blinked to clear her vision.  Tony was watching her with a patient and wary expression as Bruce whispered nonsense in her ear.

“You are in Stark Towers.  It is Monday September 14 th .  You are safe here.  We are your team.  Clint is on his way.  You are on the 43 rd floor.”  Natasha wanted to tell him that this was all information she knew, but at the same time it wasn’t.  She met Tony’s steady gaze as his hands twitched on her waist in a restrained attempt to fight back.  

Bruce’s grip on her wrist was firm, but his hands were soft and gentle as was his tone.  She slowly felt the world seep in again.  The children were being quiet, distracted by the other adults.  She blinked a few times and Tony gently squeezed her waist.

“Natasha?”  Bruce hadn’t stopped his litany of useless, yet grounding information.  She felt her foundations crack and she tried desperately to pull them back together.  Tony glanced at Bruce a moment and on some indicator she didn’t catch, Bruce slide his hand from her shoulder across her back and into an open hug.

It was so tempting to collapse into that embrace, to let someone take care of her a moment, but she couldn’t.  She didn’t deserve it.  She almost killed Tony a moment ago.  

Slowly Tony’s thumbs started to rub a circle at her waist.  She then noticed that while he was steady, he was also wary.  She forced herself to release his hair, where she had been forcing his head up, baring his neck to her knife.

“Nat, look at me.”  She knew that voice.  She glanced away from Tony to see Clint kneeling next to her.  “Nat, its okay, stand down.”  She felt Bruce take her knife as she swayed enough for Clint to read her request.  He pulled her forward, swooping her into his arms as soon as she was clear of Tony and Bruce.

“I got her.  We’ll be in the commons.”  She didn’t see Tony nod as Bruce helped him to his feet, rubbing a hand up and down his back gently.  She let herself curl up in Clint’s arms and fall apart.

000

Steve frowned as he wove his way through the kids to reach Tony and Bruce who were talking with Pepper.  “Where’s Clint and Tasha?”  Tony ignored him, typically, but Bruce met his gaze and shook his head to leave it.  Trusting his team he switched topics.

“Gordon has custody of the trio until the police get here.”  Tony glanced his way at the information but didn’t halt his discussion with Pepper about publicity.

“JESSICA!  ALEX!”  All three men turned to see a young woman rush into the room and encompass the children in a hug.  Steve watched as Tony walked over and knelt next to the threesome to talk quietly.  Pepper followed as Bruce stood next to Steve.

“Do you know the story?  The men weren’t talking much.”  Bruce nodded.

“Apparently Dr Follers was born in a rather crime oriented family.  She started working for Tony some 8 years ago in the receptionist capacity and met him during an insomnia episode.  Turned out she was pretty smart, but her family was male run and into high end industrial espionage.  Her skills had simply made her more useful to them.

“Tony offered to help her, but she couldn’t let him.  She had a Bachelor’s in computers, but her family ran her life.  When the older one was 18 months, she became pregnant again and came to Tony for help.  He helped her through her PhD.  She is one of SI’s best computer security officers.” Steve’s eyes widened as he glanced at Bruce in surprise before looking back at Tony as he seemed to reassure the woman of her safety and her kids.

“So that was the father?”  Bruce shook his head.

“No, her brother.  The entire family, or at least the male portion, feels they own her and thus the kids.  They want to train the son into inheriting the crime business.  After Tony announced he was Iron Man, they tried to get custody of the kids to force her to steal from him.  He backed her and she not only own custody, but restraining orders.”  Steve smiled and nodded.

“Good.”  Bruce smiled grimly.

“They live in the SI apartments so this is actually the easiest time to get at the kids.  We found a security guard was bribed to run interference.”  Steve frowned at that, but he trusted Tony to deal with that.  Still, betrayals ran deep with Tony after his past and Steve didn’t like them.

“She really nice.  I’ve worked with her a few times.”  Steve glanced at him in surprise.  Bruce gave him a more amused smile.  “She’s basically head of the Main SI’s security programming group.  When Tony and I wanted to integrate my designs into current products without attracting attention, he directed me to work with her on access and interface.  Tony said she could be trusted.”

“Wow, she must be something if he puts that kind of faith in her.  He doesn’t trust easily.”  Bruce shook his head.

“No he doesn’t.”  Steve sighed and leaned against the wall, content to wait around unless needed.  

“Explains how he know her kids names and why he had a prep alarm in JARVIS.”  Bruce frowned at him and shook his head.

“Steve, you really need to pay more attention to Tony.”  Steve blinked at Bruce’s suddenly stern, unamused look in surprise.  Bruce turned to join the kids who were starting to complain about getting hungry.  “Tony knows the name of every kid in here and who exactly their parents are.”

Steve stared after him a moment, feeling uncomfortably like he had just been scolded.  He looked at Tony who was talking to Dr Follers.  The boy was standing between them holding her hand and his jacket and the girl was leaning against his leg tiredly.  Tony had placed a hand gently on her head as he talked with Dr Follers.  He looked at home with them.  Steve wasn’t sure what to make of it yet, but it was something he would think about.


	2. Best Vitamin for Making Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was written after chapters 1 and 2, but it didn't feel right at chapter 3 so I'm moving all the chapters around.
> 
> This is a follow up to [ In the Beginning: Chapter 12 ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9982076/chapters/30501741) and a gift to [ RikasGrayWolf ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RikasGrayWolf/pseuds/RikasGrayWolf).

“Hey JARVIS?  Why is the sky blue most days?”

Steve was painting in the common room when he suddenly realized he didn’t know this.  Behind him, he heard Bruce chuckled as JARVIS explained light scattering as best he could.  Steve would ask a follow up question if JARVIS found a topic Steve was unfamiliar with, but the frequency with which that occured was shrinking.

It had taken over three weeks of JARVIS opening doors and directing lights for Steve to actually attempt a more direct line of communication.  All those breadcrumbs for Steve to find.

-Flashback-

Steve stopped in the studio on his floor.  Tony had turned the office space into an art studio for him and he had started to explore the contents.  Tony’s idea of what an artist needed was a bit odd, but Steve appreciated the effort.  Right now, though, he was looking for a simple pen.  His paperwork needed a signature he had forgotten to do downstairs for Pepper, something about apartment ownership or leasing ect.  It needed a signature and he really didn’t feel like interrupting Tony and Bruce as they watched the conference proceedings on some disease.  ALthough he’d been grateful for the medical advancements that he seemed to have missed, he could only take so much information on them before he needed a break.

He could go ask Natasha or Clint, but he should have a simple pen somewhere in the room!  It was an art studio for Pete’s sake!

He stood and huffed when a desk drawer opened.  He looked at it questioningly.  This had happened several times in the past few weeks, he had assumed it was accident at first.  After that theory was blown out of the water, he thought, maybe Tony was trying to help in his oblique way.  The man dodged genuine compliments and gratitude like Clint dodged knives, with precision and a quip.

But he also knew Tony was engrossed in an argument with Bruce about third world medical problems.  So this was something else.  He walked over.  THe drawer was deep and large.  He had already looked in there twice without luck.  He looked around in confusion.

“I am looking for a blue or black pen.”  He could hear the question in his statement.  “Can you help me?”

He about jumped out of his skin when a voice responded, “Assistance Request Accepted.  Pens are located in the back right of the indicated drawer.”

Steve glanced around finally locating the security camera off to the left.  He nodded to it.

-End Flashback-

He had asked simple search requests a few more times before asking to meet the person who was helping him.  He was then told that there was no human security officer for the Avengers.  He was talking to a program.

-Flashback-

“Well, what should I call you?”

“JARVIS.”

“Hi JARVIS.”  Steve thought a few moments about how one talks to a computer, “Are you an assistance program?”

“A multifunctional artificial intelligence software in charge of all electronically compatible devices within the Avenger’s Tower and Sir’s presence.”

Steve blinked as he tried to parse that out.

“So you’re a person who is made from a computer program?”

“I am an artificial intelligence, which meets certain requirements for the definition of person.”

Steve considered this, then he remembered Tony talking in his lab.  He had even mentioned a JARVIS that ran the Tower when they moved in.  This must be the person Tony was referring to.

“So you live here with all of us?”

“I exist in any machine I am downloaded into.”

“But we must have some of your focus.  You keep helping me.  Thanks for that by the way.”

“You are welcome.  Avengers are the newest users on my processor, therefore I am still acquiring data on preferences.  This process requires more focus than providing support for known users, such as Miss Potts.”

“Wow, you help all of us? Golly, thanks!”

Steve heard a wuff come from the nearest vent.

“I assist as I am able.”

“Maybe,” Steve hesitated a moment, “Maybe I could help?  I don’t know computers, but I could answer questions about us.”

“That would be most helpful.  Predicting the actions and desires of a user without interaction is far more prone to inaccuracies.”

Steve thought JARVIS actually sounded a bit distressed at this.  He smiled.  Maybe he could help his new friend out.

“Of course, I don’t think I could help you much with Tony.  You probably know him better than I do.”  He heard the wuff from the vents again.

“WHen it comes to Sir, I will accept any help logically offered.  Sir needs more users assisting him in his health.”

“Yeah,”  Steve snorted, remembering Tony’s reaction to medical vividly.  “Yeah, anytime you need a physical person to help Tony, you can let me know.”

“Thank you for the offer.  I will save the preference.”

“So you can obviously open drawers, what else do you do to assist?”

-End Flashback-

That had been an enlightening conversation for Steve.  He hadn’t realized how much of what was around him had electricity and programming that JARVIS could access.  He hadn’t really considered the broader implications of accessing that much information until one day he absent-mindedly pondered about eggs aloud.  JARVIS had answered his questions even as he had posed some of his own.  Steve had heard him give a much more detailed response to Tony, down to reciting actual numbers.  JARVIS was learning his style.  

He had offered for JARVIS to ask questions of him, but his friend seemed content to observe, only asking for clarification sparingly.  It didn’t matter, everyone had their own method of figuring people out.

When JARVIS finished explaining his current line of question, Steve smiled.  He set down his paints and started capping them.

“Thanks buddy!”

Steve turned to head for the kitchen.  Each night Bruce didn’t cook, he made enough food for the whole team.  Clint was a good cook and Natasha would occasionally try learning, but Steve was the one who liked the consistancy of a scheduled dinner.  Plus his body required the nutrition.  Natasha would join when Clint remembered to remind her and Bruce would join if he wasn’t neck deep in an experiment.  Steve liked the company.  He hoped they would join him tonight as he wandered towards the sink.

He froze.

Tony was standing in the kitchen staring at him.  Steve wasn’t sure what to make of the engineer.  He had never come to dinner and Steve hadn’t expected him out of his inventing marathon at least until midnight tonight.

“You-”  Tony gaped at him, blinking.  Then the man looked down, biting his lip.  Finally he gestured at the kitchen, “You usually make dinner about now, right?”

“Yup,” Steve nodded, placing his paints out of the way and walking over to wash his hands.  He hadn’t decided what to make yet tonight, usually he looked in the frig first.  “Any requests?”  He tried to keep most of the hope out of his voice.  Connecting with Tony had been hard and although they weren’t at war with each other, Tony maintained a careful distance, one Steve respected as best he could while still trying to make friendly overtures.  Tony was on his team, he pulled his weight and came through when it counted.  As the leader, Steve held the reins on the social status of the team, so he wanted to connect with each member.

“Whatever you want.”

Steve glanced at Tony out of the corner of his eye.  The prickly man was feigning disinterest.  Steve had learned to watch for the subtle clues with Tony though.  He looked at the screen to the other side, knowing that was where JARVIS would display his recipe list.  On the top was a single line.

_ Sir likes pasta and sauce. _

That he could do.  “How about Spaghetti?”  He saw Tony’s shoulders relax as he gave the flippant agreement and salute.  Steve worked around Tony as the man flitted from corner to corner of the kitchen, never in the way exactly, but still in the middle of the activity as Bruce entered and took over the pasta sauce.  He was better with spices anyway.

He was watching the garlic bread brown when Tony leaned against the counter next to him.

“He doesn’t have many friends.  Thanks”

Steve smiled as Tony scurried off to bug Bruce about tomatoes.  He remembered the saying his mother had on her nurses bag.

_ The Best Vitamin for making friends: B1 _


	3. Good Food and Good Company

Clint ducked as Tasha threw a mug at him.  He loved to tease her when she tried to cook.  Tasha could cook, she could cook emergency foods.  But when it came to anything more than hydrate, heat and eat, she was a bit lost.  Teasing her was the only way Clint had found to keep it from getting her too down.  

Clint, of course, could cook very well.  In the circus, everyone did everything.  Not that she’d let him teach her.  Instead here he was, dodging flying kitchenware and trying to keep her from destroying dinner too much.  There were certain skills the Red Room thought were beyond irrelevant and a satisfying meal was one of them.  It hurt Nat that they had taken something more from her.

“Should we be worried?”  Clint glanced over to see Steve poking his head in with the other behind him.  Clint shook his head, but not in time as Natasha screeched and threw the not-meatloaf in the sink, pan an all.  

“It’s a good thing I’m rich enough to order replacements for all this.”  Clint could hear Tony's mutter in the hallway.

Ignoring that, Clint looked at the meatloaf in hidden disgust, glad they weren’t going to have to eat it.  He had seen her throw raw pasta in it.  

Natasha fumed a moment before getting more ground beef out.  Clint sighed and started to mentally prepare to tease her through the simplest version he knew when Bruce walked in.  He placed his hands on hers as she set the beef on the countertop.

“Tasha, would you help me make dinner tonight?”  Natasha froze and looked at him in angered confusion.  Clint could see the hurt she was hiding.

“I can do it!”  Bruce released her hands as she yanked away.  Bruce gave her a soft smile.  “Yeah, but I want to.”  She glared at him.  He ducked his head and glanced at Tony.  Clint saw Tony hold his gaze a moment before Bruce looked back at Tasha.

“I like cooking with people, but Tony hates cooking.  Steve and Thor are still catching up and Clint won’t stop eating what we are making long enough to cook.”  He looked at her a moment, before looking away again.  “I mean we don’t have to do the same thing if you want to make meatloaf, I can make the salad or something.”  Bruce was getting quieter and quieter as Natasha stared at him.  

A soft huff from behind him, and Tony strolled in.  He wrapped an arm around the other genius, “Easy there, Tasha’s not gonna assassinate you  _ before _ the meal.  And you can’t squish her anymore, Hulk likes her too much.”  Bruce didn’t see the look Tony was giving Tasha, but Clint did.  It seemed to hit her the same time as it hit him.  Bruce still thought she didn’t wanted to be near him.  Save for medical reasons, Bruce limited his contact with the others except Tony.  Clint hadn’t ever considered it was because he thought they didn’t want to be around him.

He made a mental note to look into that as Natasha finally nodded.  Clint watched as she gently talked Bruce into making the meatloaf with her, easing him out of his shyness as easily as she would a mark.  Except there was no deception here, just openness.

That was the hardest part for her and Clint, the openness.  Tony and Bruce had their secrets stripped from them, so while they may not like it and have a plethora of defense mechanisms, their secrets being known weren’t new.  Thor and Steve seemed on the up and up all that way.  The few secrets they had were out of lack of questioning, not hiding things.  Natasha and Clint were the spies.  Their lives were secrets that were never aired.

Clint watched as Bruce talked about this meatloaf his aunt used to make, explaining his disasters in cooking it the first few times.  Clint hid a grin behind a hand as he noted that Nat was paying close attention to all the lessons Bruce had learned when trying this simple recipe.  Steve and Thor left, reminding them to call when whatever they were eating was ready.  They both had steel stomachs.  Tony watched for a bit, alert eyes not leaving Bruce protectively, until he smiled softly and backed out the kitchen during a moment of distraction.  Clint had used Steve’s exit to vanish to the rafters to watch.  Nat was too distracted to notice anyway.

Bruce kept storied going as they made mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots and a fruit salad while the meatloaf cooked.  All the time Natasha was paying close attention and learning common pitfalls of cooking.  When the oven timer dinged, she pulled out the meatloaf and smiled.  It actually smelled really good.

She was setting it on the table when Bruce started to fiddle with the fork he was holding.  “We could make another dinner together.”  Natasha looked at him with such a smile that he returned it tentatively.

“How about tomorrow night, do you know a recipe for curry?”  Bruce gave her a slightly bigger smile.  “I know several.”  Clint chuckled at the snark he had only really seen either directed at Tony/science or when the man was irritated.  He dropped down into his seat when Nat told JARVIS to summon the team.  

The food was very good.  The company was better


	4. Support Against the Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccups are not fun when you are missing part of your lungs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know very little about hiccups medically.

Tony would never forget his first round of hiccups after the reactor was implanted.  He was still in the cave and Yinsen had to help him through them.  The reactor core took up enough space that when hiccups tried to force his lungs into the casing, it hurt.  

A lot.

Yinsen talked him through the pain and mild panic of not being able to breathe much if at all.  When he had returned, he had let the memory get buried a bit under everything else there was to do.  His first real hiccup fit after becoming Iron Man was while he was also suffering from the Palladium Poisoning.  He had experienced the odd hiccup and they had hurt like none other, but they weren’t fits.  They were a hiccup every few minutes for a minute or two.  This was an actual fit.  Full blown, multiple hiccup runs less than 5 seconds apart, lasting more than 5 minutes total.  Agent Coulson had been there and once he realized what was happening, he had helped in getting Tony a glass of water and talked him through the breathing.  

It was the most vulnerable Coulson ever saw Tony, and he was grateful it never ended up in his medical file at SHIELD.  Tony had put a protocol into play with JARVIS so the AI would recognize the hiccups.  The AI could at least help him get water.

He hadn’t factored in his new house guests.

The first time he had a full case of the hiccups after the New York Fight he was actually in the elevator.  Tony had been reading under his breath, probably too fast when the attack started.  He had just downed a coke pretty fast after a 30 minute speech where there had been no water at his elbow.  In his thirst the hiccup menace had slipped his mind.

_ Shit! _  He winced as the first one hit, mildly painful.  He heaved a breath, but the next three were too quick.  Tony reach forward to the panel to press the button labeled “J” as another had him gasping and falling to his knees.  

_ Fuck that hurts! _

“Sir?”  Tony gulped air as fast as he could, as another came.  He purposefully made this one loud, hoping the AI caught it.  He blinked as he curled in his hands and knees, spasming each time the hiccups came.  He made sure to heave great gulps of air whenever he could because when the elevator stopped, he needed to be able to get to water.  He pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the side of the door.

“Main commons, Kitchen in 16 steps away.  I am running water now Sir.”  Tony almost fell out of the elevator as the doors opened, landing hard on his hands and knees as a triple hiccup hit him hard.  He could feel his vision swim as the lack of oxygen and the pain was starting to get to him.

“Tony!”  He felt arms grab his shoulders and he jerked back, curling in on himself to ease the soreness his stomach was starting to develop.  He felt like he had gone 3 rounds with Steve and Natasha.

000

Bruce and Steve were relaxing as they watched the assassitwins, as Tony called them, toss knives back and forth and just plain show off.  Dinner didn’t need to be started for a while yet and Tony was still at a meeting of some sort.

“Sir is in distress.”  The message confused Steve, but Bruce jumped up immediately.

“Where?”  Steve followed with Clint as Natasha and Bruce started for the elevator.

“Sir is in the elevator.  Hiccup protocol has been initiated.”  Steve blinked.  Hiccup protocol?  Bruce grimaced as he hurried to the elevator just as Tony practically fell out of the elevator.  He was on his knees as Clint and Bruce hurried forward and gripped his arms to help.  Tony whimpered and jerked away from them in panic.  Steve knelt in front of them as Natasha whirled around and sprinted to the kitchen.  Bruce was trying to talk to Tony as the engineer hiccuped.

“Tony, relaxed breaths.  Relaxing will help.  Tasha’s getting some water.  I’m going to massage your SCM in your neck.  Do what you can to slow your breathing.”

It took Steve a moment to realize that the hiccups were not hysteria induced, a soft sob perhaps, but rather the hiccups were the cause of the hysteria.  Steve looked at Bruce in desperate confusion as the physicist continued to talk to Tony.

“Tony, its Bruce.  You’re in the tower.  Tasha’s getting you some water.  You need to breath!  Stay calm.”  

Tony’s glazed eyes looked up and met Steve’s eyes and all Steve saw in them was a plea for help.  He found himself reaching forward.

“Tony?”  

Bruce glanced at him briefly, but turned back to Tony as another hiccup spasmed his chest.  Tears were streaming down his face now after several minutes of this pain and lack of stable breath.  Bruce continued to massage his neck and collar bones.  The physicist looked almost as upset as the engineer. Natasha knelt and gave Bruce the water.  Steve watched as Bruce didn’t feed it to Tony but rather helped to get him upright to he could hand it to him.

Tony’s rare breaths were becoming panicky the longer he was hiccupping.  Bruce swore under his breath and handed the water to Steve and pulled Tony upright and much like Steve remembered when he used to get asthma attacks.  Bruce pulled Tony back against his chest and rocked him, speaking softly into his ear.

Steve couldn’t believe it.  Tony Stark was, much like his father, very strong.  Both men exuded an air of steel and cunning that made all leery of crossing them.  This and Tony’s general lack of caring was what sparked off Steve’s internal irritation with the genius on the helicarrier.  After the battle and living here, he accepted that Tony was both a hero and liked being part of the Avengers.  But outside Bruce and Pepper, Tony had remained mildly unreachable as a friend to Steve.

Now, he was seeing him with his unending strength stripped.  His own body was slowly tormenting him with slow and repeated pain and suffocation, and the man was breaking.  The hiccups weren’t abating.  Steve had known some cases to go on for 15 minutes at this pace.  Tony grasped Bruce’s hand as he finally seemed to recognize him.

“That’s is Tony.  Take a drink of water.”  Steve moved to help Tony take a drink, but Bruce shook his head.  Steve froze and waited, depending on Bruce to indicate his next move.  Clint slowly brought Tony’s other hand up to hold the glass of water and between the three of them, Tony took a drink between hiccups.

“J what else is in the protocol?”  

JARVIS didn’t answer immediately.  “My only protocols were to move Sir to water and contact one of his level 9 or above comrades.  Sir has requested to not be given drugs.  I have no other protocol as there is no definitive cure for hiccups.”  Steve didn’t think he had ever heard the computer person sound so distressed.

Bruce winced as he thought a moment.  Looking at Tony, Steve could see the helplessness take a back seat to the concern over his best friend.  Bruce turned Tony to curl in his lap.  The engineer had drunk the water and was gasping for breath, unable to even form words.  Steve wasn’t sure he’d be coherent much longer.  Bruce met his fevered gaze, noticing that he wasn’t taking much more in.

“ _ I’m sorry Tony. _ ”  Steve blinked as Bruce turned both Tony and himself to deposit Tony in Clint’s lap and rear back and punch him in the gut.

Steve had immediately grabbed Bruce’s arm after the punch, but the physicist had unshed tears in his own eyes and he was shaking.  He ignored the Captain in favor was watching his best friend cough weakly in Clint’s arms as Tasha smoothed over the dark hair.  Steve’s eyes widened when he realized Tony wasn’t hiccupping anymore.  He was breathing as well as someone whose lung were sore normally breathes, well and had been sucker punched in the gut.  Bruce watched Tony a moment longer before jerking out of Steve’s grip and running from the room.  

000

Tony spent another 5 minutes simply breathing on the floor.  Tasha kept pacing above his head as Clint ran his fingers through Tony’s hair and speaking to him calmly.  Steve wasn’t sure what to do.  The look of defeat Tony was sporting as his air supply was kept from him and his lungs were battered was new to his knowledge of the man.  It hadn’t occurred to him the disadvantage of the arc reactor.  For this to be a problem, it must really go deep.

It made him wonder what other dangers it held for Tony.  He had thought the man was surrounded by impenetrable walls.  If that were true, then somehow, the Avengers had been let in.

“Where’s Bruce?”  Steve looked down at Tony as he finally seemed aware enough to look around.  

“Not sure.”  Steve grimaced.  

“Big Guy split shortly after punching you.”  Clint helped Tony sit up as the gasping genius slowly regained control of his breathing.  Tony froze and then looked at Clint.

“He punched me?  _ Bruce _ punched me?”  

Clint nodded in surprise.  Tony swore under his breath and struggled to his feet.  

“Tony, I don’t think you should try walking just yet.”  Steve caught him as he swayed sharply.  Tony shook his head, but spoke to JARVIS instead.

“J, where’s Bruce?”

“Dr Banner is in the green room, Sir.  He is currently in his larger form.”  

Tony winced before huffing a breath and stepping forward.  Steve grabbed him before he could topple and Clint was in front of him in a moment.

“Woah, easy there Tony.  You aren’t in any shape to see the Hulk.  You can barely walk.  Hell, you couldn’t breathe for almost a minute there!”  Tony looked at Clint then Steve before twisting to look at Natasha, who was simply standing out of the way.  They held each other’s gaze a moment before Natasha nodded.

“Steve, you might as well help him get there, because he’d go regardless.”  Her comment made Tony smile recklessly.  

“He’s in no shape!  He  _ should _ be in medical.”  Tony, and even Clint, scoffed at that.  He felt a bit sheepish remembering what lengths Tony would go through to NOT be in medical.  Bruce was the only one who could keep him there for minutes at a time.  

“Fine, where is this green room?”

000

Tony had built the green room for the Big Guy originally with the intent that Bruce could let him out to play.  He had included safety precautions to ally Bruce’s desire for a place where he could go when he couldn’t suppress the other guy.

He knew Bruce had come to see it as a safe place where he could let go and become the other guy if he wanted and it wasn’t too dangerous.  Tony had seen the stress drain out of the scientist when he woke up from his first transformation in the green room to discover not only was nothing broken, mostly, but Tony was kneeling next to him and was just fine.  That safety net allowed Bruce to slowly relax and even work with the team with the other guy.   

Tony had built a human sized entrance and a hulk size entrance.  Bruce had designed an energy matrix that would lock down on Hulk should JARVIS detect a problem.  Tony and Bruce were the only people who had access though so the others had not yet seen the room.

Tony found the Other Guy huddled in one corner when he and Steve entered.  The big guy was rocking himself back and forth.  Tony approached slowly with Steve.  He felt his sore heart clench at the sight of the big guy so upset.

“Hey Big Guy.”  

Hulk turned and looked at Tony before looking away.  “Woah, what’s wrong Big Guy?”  Tony reached out to pat the elbow nearest him.  Hulk jerked away from Tony though.

“Hurt Metal Man!”  

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, it hurt, but it was good too.”  Hulk shook his head emphatically.

“Puny Banner hurt Metal Man!  Hulk no puny.”  

Tony winced and pulled away from Steve.  Steve let him with only a grunt of protest.  

Steve had seen these two interact for months now.  There was no one either of them trusted more.  Hulk barely tolerated the rest of them, save Natasha.  Now he watched as Tony slowly made his way to the front of the green giant, placing a hand on the large arm when he faltered a moment.  He really should be lying down.

At the first touch Hulk jerked away and glanced at the genius, but seeing Tony wobble as he near fell, Hulk reached out and stabilized his friend.  Steve was always amazed at the gentleness Hulk used when around Tony.  

“Big Guy, I’m okay now.  I’m sorry.”  

“Metal Man no bad.  Banner bad.”  Hulk huffed irritably.  Tony winced, glancing at Steve a moment.  It occurred to Steve that Tony might be having a hard time relaxing around him.  They weren’t that close and he obviously was, in fact, close to Bruce and to Hulk.  

“You remember when you use my car to flatten those robots last month?”  Hulk grunted unhappily.  Clint had ribbed both Hulk and Bruce about that since Tony wasn’t actually around.  When Tony got back from his trip, he had replaced it within a few days and Bruce had helped him spruce it up as an apology.  Tony had also taken Clint aside after hearing about the teasing.  Steve wasn’t sure what was said, Clint wouldn’t talk about it, but the archer hadn’t talked about property damage with Hulk since.

“Bad.”  

Tony shook his head.  “No, good.  Not perfect, but better than if you hadn’t done it.”  Hulk grunted positively.  “That’s what Bruce did.  I needed help, he helped.  Not perfect but better than if he hadn’t done it.”  Hulk seemed to be studying the engineer, who patiently seemed to let him.  In occurred to Steve that Tony was equally gentle with Hulk.  Not physically, but verbally.  Tony’s tongue could dance circles around anyone Steve knew, yet with his teammate and near best friend, he left all that ability behind.

Hulk reached forward in what was clearly an attempt to touch Tony.  The inventor obligingly stepped into the hand that was reaching out and Hulk gathered the man close, rocking himself again.  Tony simply placed a hand on Hulks head and scratched his scalp soothingly.

Tony was having a hard time swallowing.  Hulk’s distress was nothing compared to what he was going to have to face with Bruce.  The rocking motion was too reminiscent of a child needing comfort.  Tony had a soft spot for both the giant rage monster and the self-conscious scientist since he first met either of them.

As Tony reached around to cradle the larger head, he thought back to meeting the genius.  Bruce’s file had him excited, some of the breakthroughs Bruce had done prior to being forced out of the academic fields were interesting.  Not in the ‘I want to study them’ manner, because biology and physics were only tangentially his thing, but in the leaps in logic Bruce was able to make.  He was tentatively hoping they could at least meet halfway on the lab work thinking, he so rarely had a lab partner.

On the bridge, as he did his show of strutting, genuinely reading each person’s response to his erratic segues.  He had been surprised to discover Captain America had a sense of humor, when not being a stick in the mud.  Thor took some work because he could read a great sense of humor and curiosity, but it was overshadowed by his general frustration.  He, of course, had already met One-eye and Widow.  Still, Bruce had stayed hunched back, hidden from the newcomer until Steve asked a sensible question.

Tony had lobed an easy science answer back at the man, pushing to see if he could make the leap Tony had already made.  That was what made the scientist look at him for the first time in curious interest.  Tony read the smoke screen the hiding was, a way to make others more comfortable with an otherwise irascible and curious genius.  Bruce was playing them.  Tony was impressed.

His introduction was meant to draw him out of that mode, tease him into showing that devil may care grin that the dancing eyes showed.  Instead, Bruce had retreated at the mention of the Other Guy.  Tony had to rethink his strategy then.  He saw Bruce glance around and realized that the main bridge was not the place for Bruce.  He was too invested in not having an incident.  So he needed not only himself calm, but everyone else.

It was time to move it to a lab, natural habitat and all.  Though he caught Steve’s excitement over the reference.  Something to tease the man about that didn’t seem to annoy him.  

The lab environment went much better.  Bruce even glared at him when his zapped him.  Steve’s entrance had made him back away, but Tony had the feeling Steve would be fine with the idea of Hulk if only because Steve had probably had to learn to be gentle at one time too.  Tony set aside his annoyance at Steve naiveté about One-eye in order to delve deeper into Bruce’s story, draw the man out a bit.  Bruce was fast becoming someone that could keep up with Tony not only in intelligence but also in wit.  Their back and forth was challenging in the way Peppers was, someone who didn’t let Tony get away with bullshit, but also didn’t feel the need to call it.

He also learned to stay away from the incident topic.  It made Bruce feel raw, self-hatred and isolated.  His parting shot on the topic allowed him to end the idea on a high note before they went to work playing in the universe of computers and radiation searches.  

The argument later was an exercise in being played, but it did give Tony a lot of what he needed to read his teammates.  Especially once he figured out that all their adrenaline and testosterone had increased and their cortisol had lowered artificially.   JARVIS had been monitoring him, still adjusting to the new reactor after a year, and Bruce and Steve and all three men showed these changes.  JARVIS also picked up some infrasounds.  These things explained their shorter tempers.  

That information let him pick out Thor’s nerves about leading, Tasha’s terror about hurting the wrong person and Steve’s helplessness allergy.  He also learned a lot about his science bro, namely that he resented the fact that Hulk was a danger and that this was somehow  _ his _ fault.

Tony frowned as Hulk pulled his head away.  Bruce had gotten so much more interested in accepting the Big Guy recently.  “Metal Man not angry at Bruce?”  Tony shook his head.

“I’m not angry at either of you, Big Guy.  Is that why he’s upset?”  Hulk seemed to consider this a moment before nodding and shaking his head.  “What else?”  Hulk smiled a moment, happy that Tony understood him.

“Bruce no punch.  Punch is bad.  Hurt Bruce many times.  Kill Mommy.”  

Tony had to think about that a moment before he thought he made sense of that.  He pulled Hulk close into a hug.  He felt bile rise in his throat, hating himself for a  moment for forcing Bruce into this.  Him and his stupid hiccups.

He shook his head to force that thought away and looked at Hulk.  “Hey Big Guy, can I talk to him.  I’m not mad.”  Hulk grunted before wrapping his arm around Tony.  Then Tony felt him start to shrink.  

As he stumbled back as he was set on the ground, he felt a strong hand steady him from behind and he remembered that Steve was still in the room.  Ignoring that, he knelt to grip Bruce by the shoulders as the scientist returned.  Bruce groaned softly before glancing up.  Once his eyes cleared from the transformation, he shrunk away from Tony.

Tony wouldn’t let him.  “Bruce, thank you.”  Bruce shook his head.

“I’m not mad.”  Bruce grunted in negation and tried to slouch away from Tony.

“You’re my science bro.”  This time Bruce looked at Tony in agony.

“Are you out of your mind?”  his soft plea was full of pain.  “I punched you Tony!  I had no right to raise a hand to you and I-“  Tony knelt as a sob took his voice.  

“Bruce, you did what you could to end my pain.“ Tony winced at the implication but Bruce didn’t appear to be picking up on the double meaning.  “you are not your father.”

Steve froze at that statement.  Regardless of others’ opinions, he actually was pretty smart.  He also paid attention when it concerned his new team.   _ Punch is bad.  Hurt Bruce many times.  Kill Mommy _  He blinked and swallowed bile.   _ You are not your father _  Bruce’s father.  Steve didn’t like the solution to the equation those sentences meant together.  He kept his silence, letting Tony handle this.  He wasn’t sure anything he said would help.

“Tony, I. Hit. You.”  Tony grinned.

“Not the first nor the last.”  Bruce didn’t respond to the glib humor so Tony sighed softly.  He pulled Bruce closer and held on tight.

“You weren’t mad, Bruce.  You weren’t out of control.  You weren’t even trying to hurt me.  You are nothing like that father you remember.”  Bruce looked down.  Tony leaned his head against he shaking shoulder.

“You’re not your father.”  Tony felt Bruce cringe, but didn’t let him pull away.

“You’re not your father.”  Bruce mumbled something, but Tony just grinned.  He could be annoying if that was what was called for from his best friend.

“You’re not your father.”  Bruce heaved a sigh and nodded wearily.

“You’re not your father.”  Bruce looked up at him with a quizzical look and nodded,  “I got it.”   Tony grinned.

“You’re not your father.”  This time it was said with a smirk.  Bruce frowned at him but Tony’s grin just widened at the return of the sense of humor he had come to like so much.

“You’re not your father.”  Bruce heaved a sigh and shook his head, grinning his version of a laugh.

“You’re not yo-“  “OKAY!  Okay, okay, okay, I’ll hit you again, are you happy now?”  Bruce was chuckling now.  

Tony pulled him into a hug.   “Happy is my driver, I’m thrilled.  Come on, I’m told I should be recuperating, its your job to confine me to some bed right?”  Bruce glanced at him in concern, still grinning.  He sighed and heaved himself up.  He glanced down, grabbing his scrap of pants as he did so.  He hadn’t been dressed for a hulk out, so his stretchables were not on.  

He didn’t see Tony swallow as the slender hips made an appearance.  A deep breath and Tony was leering when Bruce looked at him in wry amusement.  “I think its fetching, you should continue with this wardrobe trend.”

Bruce scoffed and looked over to meet Steve’s eyes.  The Captain looked like he was considering a complicated puzzle from all sides.  Steve came back to himself in time to catch Bruce’s silent plea to help.  He was too tired after changing to help Tony.  Steve nodded and came forward.  Bruce chuckled at Tony’s squawk of indignation as Steve practically lifted the smaller man.  Bruce glanced at him.

“Head to the common living room.  I’ll grab clothes and meet you there.”  

Steve nodded and started off, until Bruce called to him.  “Steve, stop off at Tony’s and pick up his comforter please.”  Steve grinned and nodded and Tony protested needing one.  Bruce waited until they had separated before he had JARVIS patch him through to Tasha.

000

Tony sighed softly as he settled further into sleep.  He was in the middle of three mattresses that had been pushed together, then covered in pillows and blankets and then covered in Avengers.  Bruce smiled as he sipped his tea, still awake as the credits rolled on the screen.  They had watched Wall-E.  Tony hadn’t lasted 30 minutes, both exhausted and hurt from earlier.  Clint and Natasha had curled up together next to him, Tony cuddling between them.  The assassitwins had been asleep for the last 20 minutes of the film..

“This was a good idea, thanks”  Bruce looked at Steve, the only one still awake with him.  Bruce had been on the other side of Tony than Natasha and Steve had been above his head.  However, after the incident earlier, Bruce had felt the need for tea.

“Tony never saw the Disney movies as a kid.  Rhodey told me at one point after a lot of alcohol that Tony had looked them up during his college years, but when Stane took over SI, he was pushed into the public eye too much and Disney was considered childish and irresponsible.”  

“Because Tony is so responsible.”  Steve snorted.  Bruce chuckled at the sarcasm.

“Actually that is why Rhodey puts up with it.  Being a playboy is an adult thing, not a childish thing.  Tony gave up his childish irresponsibility for the company.  He was allowed to indulge in the adult version, and some news outlets even encouraged it.”  Steve gave him a disgusted look but Bruce’s thoughts were trained on the sleeping genius.

“Can you imagine?  16 years old, parents suddenly gone, your every move and decision under criticism by the public and they want either dirty secrets or flamboyant disasters.  Tony dealt with that by giving them flamboyant disasters so they wouldn’t go looking for dirty secrets.  It meant giving up certain things though.  Disney was one of them.”  

“He always gave as good as he took.  I guess I never thought about it tactically.  I’ll keep a better eye on him.  Of all of us, he’s the worst at taking care of himself.”  Steve looked at Tony.  Bruce chuckled.

“No wonder Pepper always looks overworked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally stole Tony's method of helping Bruce from Good Will Hunting


	5. Before a Hawk Could Fly

Steve was excited when he entered the common room.  The circus was in town.  He remembered when it was in Jersey once when he was a kid.  Bucky and him had saved up for tickets and had a blast.  He had decided to splurge and get tickets for each member of the avengers.  They would have to go incognito, but it could be fun!

By in town, he meant it was within a 2 hour drive, but Tony had already volunteered some awesome vehicles if anyone wanted to do something.  As long as by something it wasn’t being a douchebag according to Pepper, he didn’t mind.

Convincing the others to join was a strange experience.  Tony loved the excuse of teambuilding to avoid Pepper and Thor was fascinated.  Bruce absolutely refused to have any part in this and Tony eventually gave him the back off look and mouthed the word ‘cages’.  Natasha and Clint were the interesting ones.  Of all of them, he expected Clint to be interested in it the most, having grown up in a circus, but Natasha deferred to Clint and Clint looked more like a deer in headlights at the suggestion.

“A circus?  Um, sure okay.”  Steve glanced at Natasha, who looked worried but agreeable. 

So the Avengers, sans Bruce, went to a circus.

000

The circus was even more magnificent than he remembered.  The balloons were even more colors, though he ducked away from the clown.  That made Tony snicker for nearly an hour, but they were creepy.  Natasha and Thor tried their hands at the games, winning a small variety.  Tony “improved” one of the games which had them ducking away from a vendor.  The main event was starting anyway.

They all herded into the tent with the crowd.  Tony managed to corral them into seats on an edge, so Natasha was next to an aisle.  The ringmaster introduced the elephants and a horse rider.  The woman on the tight rope was rather lackluster to the team of super humans, but the squirt gun war with the clowns was funny.  Even Tony was starting to relax and not worry about PR and just enjoy himself.

The knife expert came out next and Steve snorted as one of the knives was slightly off center.  Clint could show them a thing or two.  He turned to jokingly suggest such a thing when he registered the archer’s frozen expression.  Natasha was rubbing his wrist subtly and Tony was leaning against him, seemingly by happenstance, but Steve knew Tony well enough to know that in public nearly every move was calculated.

Suddenly the spotlight moved to the aisle next to Natasha.

“Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, tonight we have a very special show.  Our famous Bullseye is visiting and can impress us with an amazing show of unparalleled talent.”  Clint looked like he was carved out of stone and Tony was scowling at the man while Natasha was tapping where Steve was certain she had a few knives of her own stored.

“Give it up for Bullseye!”  The crowd automatically cheered loudly as the Ringmaster handed a cloth-wrapped bundle to Clint.  Tony and Natasha looked murderous, but Clint took the bag.  Steve frowned at the shake in his hand.  He gently vaulted over Natasha and a change came over his face.  Steve cringed as Tony’s best PR face spread across the archer’s face.

He held up the bundle to a cheer and a group of tumblers entered the ring.  That distracted the crowd as the ringmaster whispered in his ear.  Based on his look of fury, it probably wasn’t encouragement.  Steve almost rose, but Tony had a grip on his wrist and Natasha shook her head.

“Tumblers versus Bullseye, Begin!”

Clint’s show was impressive.  Each tumbler had two wooden sticks in each hand and were tumbling around the ring as Clint threw knives into the mess.  Once he was out, the tumbers came to the ringmaster in a circle.

“Tumblers display your sticks.”  Each and every stick had a knife or knife mark in each end.  The crowd erupted, but Clint bowed and exited.  The rest of the avengers followed quietly.  Although they hurried, Clint reached the exit before they did and was waylaid by a member of the circus.

“I wondered when you were gonna show.”  Both saw a large tumbler come from the shadows.  “You really shouldn’t have disappeared like that!”  Clint frowned at him.

“I did what I had to, Barney.”  Natasha sped up at that name, but they stayed in the shadows.  Clint’s body language was irritated, but loose.  He was ready for a sucker punch.  He did subtly acknowledge them off to one corner.

“Yeah?  Louise and Jack missed you.”  Clint stiffened at the man's sneer.  “They went fucking nuts, missing you and they ain’t around no more.”  

Clint barely held back a bristle.   “Where are they?”  

Barney laughed cruelly. It set Steve’s teeth on edge and he felt Thor rumble next to him.  He waved him back, let Clint handle this until they were needed.

“Too bad you weren’t here, Brat!”  Barney suddenly stopped laughing, a snarl on his face, “You abandoned your family!”  

Clint growled.  “They had each other!”  

“Not them!"  Barney snarled back at him.  "ME!  I’m your fucking family!  Boss is your fucking family.  Do you know how much harder life got after you left and took our top act with you!  You fucking selfish prat!  You abandoned your only family!”  

Clint was still glaring at the man, but he did take a small step back.

“You are not my family!”  

“That’s because you have no family!  You don’t deserve any family!”  Barney laughed cruelly.  Steve had had enough.  He stepped into the light and placed a hand on Clint’s shoulder.

“That is enough!”  Thor was next to him and Tony and Natasha stood on Clint’s other side.

“Clinton is our shield brother.  We are his family!”  Thor’s words, and their baldness did what eloquent speeches could not.  

Barney gaped at them a moment before they heard another voice.  “Who the hell are you?!?  Clint’s only family is this circus.  Get your hands off him!”  They turned and the ringmaster was stomping towards them.  With his hand on Clint’s shoulder, Steve felt the man subtly flinch with every move of the whip in the ringmaster’s other hand.  Still his voice was strong when he spoke.

“No.”  Clint glanced at Barney before turning to the ringmaster in defiance.  “You are not my family.  You have never been my family.  Barney, you lost that right a long time ago.  I have a family now.  They will always side with me.  That is what a family does!”  

Barney let out a vicious roar and leaped at Clint, but Natasha intercepted him and the next thing he knew he was in a pile boxes.  Steve felt Clint’s muscles relax a bit and they all turned to go.  

“Just like your mother, a coward!”  Clint tensed, but Tony spoke this time.

“Walking away is a strength.  I’ll take him over you bastards any day.”  Tony turned and grinned at them.  “Just an fyi, I own this lot.  Enjoy your last show here.”  Steve hadn’t realized Tony had been busy.  The ringmaster sputtered, but they didn’t let him speak again as Natasha herded Clint into the car.

Once they were all piled into the car, Clint blew out a breath and started to shake.  Natasha pulled him against her shoulder as they sat.  Thor knelt in front of him and wrapped him in gigantic arms.

“You are my shield brother.  Family that is chosen is the deepest bond of all.”  They all smiled as Clint gripped Thor’s side and let himself be held the whole way home.

000

Clint sighed as JARVIS informed him he was needed in the common room.  He put away his knitting and hopped out of his nest and into the vents.  He had really wanted to finish the hat today too.

Arriving at the vent he peaked out to see Tony and Steve speaking to an elderly couple.  He locked eyes with Natasha in the corner and she signaled an all clear and he dropped down.

A soft gasp from the couple, reminded him that some of their guests weren’t used to their strange ways.  He blinked as he stared at the couple curiously.  The man was bald, and likely had been for some time.  He leaned gently against a cane, barely seeming to need it.  The woman had a bun of white hair and emerald glasses.  Both looked to be in their 70s and neither were a threat in his mind.  They were familiar, but he couldn’t place them.

“Clint?”  Apparently they could place him though.  The woman smiled and came over, far faster than he expected.  Her soft hand rest on his cheek, above the bone and a memory slotted into place.

-FlashBack-

“Clint if you keep hold the bow that close to your face, you are going to loose an ear!”  Clint looked over at Jack as he scolded the pre-teen.  He again adjusted his grip and helped him steady the bow.  He took aim and let go.  The arrow whistled impressively before sinking a good foot away from his target.  He heard a soft sigh.

“Sweetheart, you are hurting yourself!”  Gentle hands brushed the top of his cheek bone and came away bloody.  The feathering on the arrow had graced his cheek.  Louise sighed and Jack gave her one of his go-ahead looks.  

“All right.  Pick up the next arrow, sweetie.”  Clint picked it up and drew it back.  Suddenly Louise’s palm was flat against the back of his hands, her arms following the curve of his and her body against the back of his.  Unlike Jack, Louise was soft, welcoming.  Jack was strong, and protecting.  “Now, you are not hitting the target.  You are connecting the target to yourself.  Through space and time the arrow that will hit that target, is also in your hand.  When you draw your bow, you are reaching out to control that little bit of space and time.  Do not draw the string to you, but open the string as you open yourself to the universe.  See the connection, and release!”

The arrow flew true and for a moment Clint saw the target large as Chuck, the elephant.  Then he blinked as his arrow sprouted out of the center of the target.

He turned and yelped as his favorite circus aunt and uncle smiled proudly.  Louise placed her hand on his cheek, where the cut was healing still.

“I’m so proud of you, Clint.  Well done.”

-FB-

Clint felt tears build behind his eyes as he recognize a couple he had not seen since he was 16.  Louise smiled at him.

“Hi Sweetheart.”  Clint glanced at Tony in question, but the billionaire just smiled at him and waved.  Clint turned back to Louise and smiling, engulfed her in a hug.  He could hear her laughing in his ear and was certain she had tears coming down her cheeks.

He glanced over as Jack’s hand landed on his shoulder.  “We thought you were dead, son.  Near about broke our heart.  It’s good to see you.”  He smiled, letting Louise back away enough to breath.  His throat was so tight he couldn’t talk, but Louise always seemed to understand that.  She smiled at him.

“I’m so proud of you, Clint.  Well done.”

**Author's Note:**

> ANy scene people want to see, let me know in the comments. Steve reading about GLBT is already requested


End file.
